Customer Reviews

The Deer's Cry: A Book of the Keltiad

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Once, and not so very long ago, Patricia Kennealy-Morrison wrote fascinating books setting the Kelts in space. She created one of the best-loved fantasy heroines in Aeron, and rewrote the Arthurian legend. Then she wrote the turgid Blackmantle. I hoped it was an aberration, a necessary cleansing of her memories and grievances that somehow missed the editor's desk, and looked forward to her next book.

The Deer's Cry is the story of Brendan the Astrogator, the Kelt who led his people to space, and it should be a rollicking, wild ride. Instead, Kennealy-Morrison puts the reader to sleep with an overlong volume of endless bickering between Brendan and Padraig, also known as St. Patrick, using their feud to symbolize the conflict between pagans and the Church. That, I could have handled; the pagan world's reaction to Christianity was not always awe and acceptance, and it would have been a treat to show some real arguments and debates between the two principals--if Brendan had been less self-righteous, or Padraig the least bit sympathetic. Instead, the characters are all drawn in black and white, the battle is overbalanced in favor of the pagans (who always manage to get in the last word), and everything about the Christians or the early Celtic Church is shown in the darkest light possible.

I'm not looking forward to another book in this planned trilogy. If this is the form Kennealy-Morrison plans to espouse from now on, I dread thinking about what her Gwydion trilogy will look like. For now, I'll keep my "Keltiad" and "Arthur" trilogies as an example of what Kennealy-Morrison can do when she's focused and uses an editor.

Let me state, first and foremost, this is the most egregious example of Mary Sue-ism I have ever read. It stinks; it wreaks; it screams Mary Sue. I didn't know you could do that with an entire book, not just a character. If you don't know what Mary Sue means, Google it and chortle.

The entire book reads like bad fanfic. While I can admire well done flowery prose, detailed descriptions and an attempt to differentiate the speech of an ancient people, the prose clunks along, a well-turned phrase suddenly crumpling into ungrammatical pain. The book is full of interminable descriptions with tongue-twisting dialogue even the characters would have protested if they could speak their minds. I would skip several paragraphs at once to get to the heart of a scene because her descriptions rarely had bearing on the action and were too boring/distracting to plow through. To publish such poor writing should be a crime.

There was nothing resembling tension, action, risk or excitement in this book. Ms. Kennealy is simply relating to her readers the events of the Celt's (Kelt's) immram from Earth and she's managed to strip every last hint of passion from it. Despite the fact her readers know it succeeded there's not the slightest bit of worry that some of the key characters may not make it. There is not the tiniest fear that their plans will be found out by Patraic or his followers and nefarious plots hatched to stop them. There is not the teensiest concern that a close friend might betray them. There is so little danger to the character's or their endeavor you wonder why you're reading it at all.

I honestly disliked the childish manner in which she portrayed both faiths. I'm a Pagan and even I found the way she treated Christianity to be offensive and rude, using the same hack arguments without thought. And she did equal disservice to her version of ancient Celtic faith (not that anything is actually known other than what little Irish monk-scholars recorded at the time) by holding it up as the one and far better faith. She becomes guilty of the hubris she decries in Patraic and his followers.

This book could have been so much better if Patraic were as sympathetic and admirable as Brendan and they had honest debates about the merits and flaws of each religion. But that would have taken away her cardboard cutout bad guy as well as her catalyst for the immram. Then Ms. Kennealy would have had to do something she seems incapable of - coming up with a better, more compelling reason for the Kelts to leave Earth. So, Patraic and his followers are brutish thugs and Brendan and the other Gael/Danaans proclaim themselves and their faith superior with a smirk and a wink. Yeah, that's mature.

If you need a Kelts in Space fix, go back and read her first three books. They are far, far better than this effort.

I have been an avid fan of the Keltiad since I first read The Copper Crown many years ago, and will probably continue to be. However, Blackmantle was quite disappointing, and The Deer's Cry was also definitely not one of the author's better efforts. I admit, I was somewhat uncomfortable with the vitriolic perspective on Christianity, but in all fairness, the Church has perpetrated some awful stuff over the centuries, and has usually been very successful in hushing it up, so it was very interesting to read a truly alternative perspective (even it did stir up some discomfort). My main beef with this book is one which has been evident in her others, but which is becoming more, rather than less, obvious: her characters are too black and white. They are either good/perfect/wonderful/admirable or evil/shallow minded/stupid. Let's face it: most of us are halfway in between the two. I think that Patraic would have been more believable had he been somewhat less hypocritical and less someone who deliberately and openly twisted facts for his own benefit (a religious fanatic who truly could not see the illogic of his beliefs is far more believable and would have achieved the same result); similarly Brendan would have generated more sympathy had the conflict been a little more evenly balanced. For one thing, if the conflict was as unsubtle as the author describes, why would the King and Queen have kept giving in to Patraic's demands? I think that the author's personal bitterness and anger is dominating more and more of her work, to its detriment.

The good news about The Deer's Cry is that it is far, far better than Blackmantle. The disappointment is that it is not as good as the Aeron or Arthur books, though the reason why may or may not be the fault of the author.

The underlying premise of the book--the Danaans fleeing for their own and their culture's survival for the third time--has an enormous potential for development of characer and intricacy of plot. First the Danaans escaped a star going nova, lost Numinore (an hommage to J. R. R. Tolkien, who as a devout Catholic might or might not appreciate it); then Atland went under; finally they abandon Erith rather than fight it out with the new, competing religion and culture represented by Patraic. There is, as others have noted, a certain lack of nuance about Patraic's character, but history also notes Christianity's unrivalled record for persecuting other religions. You can't get much less nuanced than the crusading Bishop's order to Simon de Montfort, who wanted to know how to avoid killing Catholics along with Cathars: "Kill them all. God will know his own."

It is not here that the book fails, but in the lack of character development and plot elaboration. We are told of Brendan's mourning for his son Rohan, but we never get to know Rohan for ourselves. Etain, Brendan's Sidhe wife, ought to be a major character, but she has hardly more than a cameo role. We know Brendan's fetch, the Faol Mor, better than we know his human/sidhe family. Similarly, there are paragraphs, even sentences, that beg to be developed into chapters--the invasions of newly settled Keltia, for instance, are passed over with barely a catalogue of foes.

The problem throughout is compression. If you look at the list of proposed Keltiad volumes in either the Aeron or Arthur series, you will note that Kenneally projects The Tales of Brendan--TALES, three of them. For whatever expediency, those tales seem to have been shrunk down to this one Tale, and the richness of character and plot that the reader has come to expect of Kenneally is thereby rendered impossible. If this is Kenneally's way of sloughing off a segment of her Keltic history that no longer holds her interest, shame on her. The book would have been better unwritten. If, however, this short shrift is due to the publisher, shame on Harper's for a lack of trust in both author and audience.

This is the lowest rating I have ever given a book. I never thought I'd be mean enough to give a book only one star, but this one deserves it. Deer's Cry has little in the way of plot and character but a lot of preaching on the virtues of paganism. It gets old fast. Whole chapters are spent on nothing but religious debates between St. Patrick and the pagan hero, Brendan, with not nearly enough explanation of such minor details as how the Kelts could go from Dark Age lack of science and technology to being able to pilot spaceships, which is supposedly the main premise of the book. The author glibly explains that the Sidhe taught them how, but she doesn't SHOW us this process, only tells us it occurred. I felt cheated. Another implausible thing is the way Brendan is shown as always winning those debates. How could Christianity have become dominant if the pagans were always able to make its proponents look like fools in public? It doesn't make any sense. I suspect the author is more interested in attempting to convert her readers to modern paganism than in writing a decent novel. I got very tired of reading scenes where the gods appear and lecture pompously for several pages. Whether you agree with her points or not, the style of delivery is a real turn-off.

Considering how many stories assume an underlying theme of Christianity, I found Kennealy's alternate view most illuminating and pleasurable. With most of European history being one version or another of the Protestants vs. the Catholics, this kind of emphasis on the precursor of Christian religion is a rarely told tale. Paganism has been given such a monsterously bad rap in America, it's a wonder we haven't drummed Easter and Halloween out of our lives. Instead, we've reduced these formerly vibrant celebrations of life and seasons into greeting card and candy motivated holidays. Kennealy never gives you candy or cute howdy-do. She's there with fire and passion in her writing and a love for the old ways that cradles each word respectfully. I recommend Deer's Cry for its insight and bravery as well as the sense of adventure within.

I'm about 100 pages into this book and I'm already growing tired of Kenneally's obvious dislike for Padraic, who she views as ignorant, immature and closed-minded. I've read all of Kenneally's books since "The Copper Crown," which I devoured in one setting at age 12, and I will probably continue to buy her books because she tells a good story. But in her last four books, I've noticed fuzzy language, criticism of Christianity, and far too many references to her great love affair with Jim Morrison and the book she'll publish telling the "truth" just as soon as it's allowed. A note to Kenneally. The only books of yours I will not buy will be the ones about Morrison. I don't care.

I am a big fan of Patricia Kennealy's Keltiad series and very much enjoyed her other books, but this was a great disappointment. The author makes it very clear that it is her opinion that the bringing of Christianity to Ireland was a crime. It is a shame that the author allowed her feelings to get in the way of writing a decent book. There was a lot of potential of this book, but it was all wasted. If you wish to read a book by Patricia Kennealy - read one of the other books of the Keltiad.

As much as I have enjoyed the saga of Keltia, particularly the tales of Aeron and Arthur, this book really turned me off. Kennealy-Morrison wanted the old religion to appear so much better than any other option around. However, she ended up sounding as didactic and intolerant as she accuses Catholicism of being.

Anyway, the story was okay, but not as riveting as some of her other books, certainly nothing in comparison to the Throne of Scone. It took too long to get away from Earth, and then didn't spend enough time in Keltia. I would have liked a lot more about Brendan's mother, Nia and for most of the supporting cast to have given a little more attention. If her books continue to be pagan propaganda, I'll stick with the first books and forget whatever else is planned. Which is too bad, because I have really enjoyed the Keltic saga until the past two books.

A continuation of the Keltiad saga - but with even more self-consciously "Celtic" wording. I have re-read the first three books in the series and continue to find them tightly plotted with interesting characters and situations. "The Deer's Cry" is not up to the standard set in the first three novels, and I found myself becoming irritated at the forced phraseology - "housen" for houses, "acquent" for acquainted"'customed", for accustomed, etc. If Ms. Kennealy-Morrison would return to the language used in the early works she'd serve her characters - and us - a good turn.